During this summer holiday, I felt inspired by Rabia, an Arab Muslim saint, one of the earliest Sufi mystics, who could be described as an embodiment of the Sufi path of fana, annihilation of the separate self, which then leads to baqa, divine union.

While reading Wild Mercy by Mirabai Starr, I came across this wonderful short poem written by Rabia:

I exhausted myself, looking.
No one ever finds this by trying.
I melted in it and came home,
Where every jar is full,
But no one drinks.

I took these words in, breathed in the beautiful silence of a bright summer day and felt a precious love of the divine presence….

People wanted to ask Rabia what she meant in her poem…and then she told them: ”You want to know about the how…But I know only the how-less”…

Can you make some space in your inner heart for the how-less?